Tito: "If we'd lost I would have been called a risk-taker"

Barcelona head coach Tito Vilanova was happy with his team's performance in winning at Getafe, a stadium where Barça went down in defeat last season. "But the most important thing is that we have 12 points from 12 available. We controlled the match and showed patience, although we could have scored more".

The only dampener on the night was the loss of Puyol to injury. "Tomorrow we'll know more about how long he'll be out for, when they do more tests. It's a problem that we've always had at centre-back; we know how important Puyol is to us, he organises us defensively, and he was looking really good".

Vilanova is refusing to get carried away with the club's start to the season and the league advantage over Real Madrid. "We've only played 4 games in the league, what I care about is us continuing to improve", he stated.

Tito had the following to say about leaving Messi on the bench: "I discussed it with him. He'd had a tough pre-season and was jet-lagged after travelling to Argentina, he felt a little tired. He could have started, but I wanted fresher players out there to begin with". This is more or less the same reason why Dani Alves failed to feature at all: "He has been away in Brazil and the third day of jet lag is usually tricky. It will go down as a success, but if we'd lost I would have been called a risk-taker".

The Barça manager picked out Thiago for his "ability, excitement and eagerness to come back" and reserved special praise for Cesc Fàbregas: "He looks more comfortable in a free role, but we have the best player in the world in that position. In any case I think I was even happier with him when he played on the wing in the second half, after Messi came on".